When the oil price was last in $100 per barrel range Africa was a major hotspot for exploration and appraisal. Due to various geopolitical developments the region quickly cooled off and has been largely quiet until now. With such a diverse range of basins, countries and petroleum systems anyone considering entering the region needs a robust and accurate benchmark. Using a dataset purchased from DrillingInfo and Alteryx we explored some of the trends within the contienent from Q1/Q2 this year.

1. From Data to insight: Emerging
Opportunities in Africa for 2018
Daniel Austin, Geoscience
Consultant
Dan@mdnsolutions.co.uk

2. Introduction
Overview
Africa is enjoying a resurgence of interest in
the current market and as such presents a
range of opportunities for oil companies to
exploit.
As a province offering a mix of new, frontier
and mature basins it can be difficult to select
where to drill next.
We designed this project to turn reams of
raw data into a clear and easy to understand
insights by filtering out the noise and then
drilling down into the results.
Deliverables
• Map general trends
• Isolate specific behaviours in activity
• Develop a scorecard for each basin
• Score individual blocks by criteria
• Estimate cost of drilling

3. Approach and Methods
Connect your data silos
•Open Source
•Paid Content
•Propriety data
•Multiple file types and formats
supported
Gain Insights Faster
•Process millions of datapoints
in minutes
•Instant maps and reports
without formatting
•Customise and adjust
workflows and results in real
time
Leverage New technology
•Platform can scale and adapt
as technology advances
•Leverage azure and cognitive
analysis packages
•R and Python interface allow
the addition of bespoke code
and applications

4. Basin analysis
• Well data was filtered and blended into the
basins file via spatial matching
• created 4 categories for basins based on the
number of existing fields and economic finds
in the last 10 years
• Where gaps existed basins were given the
value “new”
• Other data such as geology and operator was
aggregated for future analysis
• Overlay well data for future reference

5. Scouting Model
• The scouting data were analysed
in 3 stages:
• Firstly a generic heatmap was
produced for the entire continent
• Secondly data were aggregated via
basin and blended with the basin
category basins
• The combined data was then
matched into the available block
datasets to produce a score for
each available block

6. Licencing Opportunities
• Combing the scouting and basin analysis
allows the scoring of available blocks
• In order to better inform decisions
current infrastructure such as fields,
facilities and pipelines can be overlain
• Planned wells that are within close
proximity of future rounds have been
added to the map to add information
regarding age, formation and drilling costs
• Data can be easily sliced and analysed
further with the results fully exportable

7. Petroleum System Analysis
Example
• Ghana stands out as an above average
prospect based on the score cards
• By combining the data with licensing
rounds and current exploration we
can get an indication of potential plays
and reserves
• Petroleum system data from another
provider has been matched in to
provide an estimate of potential
reserves and targets for blocks
• Other basins are outlined to indicate
potential areas of interest in other
territories

8. Thank you
LET’S TALK!
E. Dan@mdnsolutions.co.uk
W. www.mdnsolutions.co.uk
T. +447969137790